FITNESS fanatic Dawn Roberts, who runs boxercise classes at St Helens YMCA, and her boyfriend, Dave Platt have taken part in the daunting X-Zone challenge at RAF Cosford, Shropshire.

The pair earned their places in the challenge finals after finishing in the top 200 out of 5,000 competitors nationwide. They had to tackle a number of gruelling tasks including a 2.5km run, 20 wide-grip chin ups, 20 dips, 1,500 metres on the rower, a 15ft vertical rope climb, 45 floors on a stepper, 4km cycle and a course of shuttle runs delivering heavy weights into a catch bin followed by a final sprint to the finish line.

Although neither won the overall challenge, Dawn was the 18th fastest woman and she is already preparing for next year's event when she hopes to finish in the top ten.